It’s the last day of 2020 and I’m having a look back through the year that really wasn’t. 

It began as most years do in January. Back then, we’d heard that there was a virus outbreak in a town called Wuhan in central China. Never in a million years did anyone stop to think that it would disrupt our day to day on such a huge scale.

I’d survived Christmas with it’s mince pies and chocolates. I’d put on a couple of pounds and was actually still losing a small amount. January is usually a quiet month with everyone spent out after Decembers celebrations. Friends got to celebrate their birthdays and work was as per, a communal affair.

I’d started to get some walks is during my lunch hour. I was able to go when the weather was fair and have walks around town, trying to stretch the distance in the time allotted. 

By February I was walking from the office, to Central Square, past the Principality Stadium, into Bute Park and then back to the office. A good little trek in the time allotted. I even looked into the possibility of running! Maaad!!

Then in March, the World went chests skywards.

The world changes.

Mum had had a fall or two before March but ended up in Hospital for the first time when she fell towards the end month. I’d just started to work from home when I had the call to let me know that she’d been taken to A&E at UHW. 

Panic mode hit and I headed there. At that time, I was able to see her and sat with her for a while to make sure she was okay. I made my way back to Wenvoe to look after the dog and eventually moved in to the spare room for months. Mum was released from hospital a few days later thankfully.

The way that she has visibly deteriorated over the last 12 months is frightening. Photographs taken over the last couple of years show her capable and mobile but that has been decimated. It’s at the point where she’s now being given a wheelchair to get her out and about. But as I still can’t get into see her where the f**k can I take her?

Anyway, I digress! My diet almost overnight became non-existent. I was no longer in control of what was being eaten as I had to cater for the Mum too. That meant bread, butter and not so good stuff. My discipline disappeared as well. The stress of Covid and Mum’s health was so poor that I suppose again I stopped caring about me and what I was doing.

Slimming World stopped groups and while I thought I’d be there for the rest of my life, keeping me honest, I had moved away from the group that had supported me through the early days of the journey and an online group really didn’t really give me the impetus that I needed. My hopes are that given the vaccine, SW will start groups again and somewhere close to home. 

After a few months looking after Mum from home, we got her the extra care visits. I felt that it would be okay to move back home. 

Within weeks, she fell again and was taken again to hospital. This time she was not going to return home. That was in August and I’ve still not seen her. She’s been bounced around and has ended up at Regency Care Home in Ely.  

That has been a bit of a nightmare one way or another. I have to figure out if her care is covered by the NHS given her diagnosis. We’ve already racked up £3k’s worth of charges and once the house is sold then it’ll be that amount every month. 

I do have a few leads that I will explore to see if those fee’s could be recoverable so I will see where that goes. 

2021

This will be a different year and with any luck by the end of it, we’ll be rid of Covid and able to revel in our friendships and partnerships. My aim is to lose between four and five stone although this really puts me back to where I was at the start of the year. 

I want to complete this journey and stay at the station at the end. Mum is settled, her house cleared and sold, I’m on my bike and walking more often. I’ll have clambered up Pen-Y-Fan at least twice and who knows, I may find someone to love. 

So bye bye Twenty Twenty.

Hello Twenty Twenty Fun!